'Glendale bear' likes meatballs -- and swimming, too?

That’s why La Crescenta resident Kelly MacDonald thinks the bear that roamed into her yard on Thursday may have tried to cool down in the family pool.

She said she can’t be sure, but after looking at her photos she thinks the bear’s fur was wet. So chalk up swimming as another preferred activity for the ursine known in some quarters as Meatball and on Twitter as Glen Bearian.

“He probably hopped in the pool,” MacDonald said Monday, a few days after her bear encounter. “It was hot that day, maybe he was looking for a swim.

“We also have had evidence of bear droppings in our Jacuzzi before,” she added, “that only a bear could do.”

MacDonald, a 26-year-old graphic designer, has garnered plenty of attention since she photographed a bear with an orange ear tag. Officials with the California Fish and Game Department have confirmed that the bear in MacDonald’s backyard Thursday afternoon was the same bear that they tranquilized in April after he made several weekly visits to the area.